Five years ago, Natchitoches Regional Medical Center began providing wound care services to the families of Natchitoches Parish. However, as the service demands continued to grow, so did the need to expand the facility. Today, the hospital opened its doors for a brand-new center on the Bienville side of the hospital campus. This newly constructed 7,015 square foot center doubles patient treatment areas and includes four hyperbaric chambers.

The new Center is the vision of Wound Care Clinic Director Jamie Fontana and NRMC physician partners. They wanted to not only expand the Center’s footprint from the original 2,800 square foot facility but also to create a center that could showcase clinical workflow, state-of-the-art technology, and an abundance of patient amenities. The architectural design teams of Bradley Blewster and CD Morgan Mechanical took this vision and brought it to fruition, creating one of the premier wound care centers in the nation.

“The story of NRMC Wound Care Services is extraordinary. In my career, I have rarely seen a service expand at this pace, nor at this volume,” CEO Kirk Soileau noted. “This is a testament to the team’s clinical excellence and shows what happens when dedicated clinical and medical staff partners work together to diagnose, treat and heal people who are without hope and facing debilitating limb loss without treatment. Patients come from all over Louisiana, eastern Mississippi, southern Arkansas and west Texas hoping to save a foot, hand, arm or leg and even their lives. Then after 14-to-20 weeks of outpatient care, most leave the Center healed, walking out the doors healthier and with an improved quality of life,” Soileau said.

“The Center concept began back in April 2013 during my first week on the job when Frank Aviles, P.T. , and a group of physicians invited me to dinner to discuss the possibility of developing a wound center. For years, Frank had been championing the need for wound care services, seeing the lack of treatment options for patients in the greater Natchitoches Community,” Soileau explained. “Two years later, we opened the NRMC Wound Center and invested in two hyperbaric chambers. Jamie Fontana was recruited as the opening Center Director as part of the Healogics partnership from the Monroe Louisiana market. And great recoveries have taken place ever since. I can only imagine what will happen in the future with our best in class Center and this amazing team of professionals. On behalf of all NRMC Associates, our Board of Commissioners and the community that we serve, THANK YOU to these visionaries and clinical champions for ensuring lifesaving and life-changing wound care services to the families in our region,” Soileau added.

About Healogics

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Healogics is the nation’s wound healing expert. Last year over 300,000 patients received advanced wound care through a nationwide network of over 600 Wound Care Centers. The Healogics team is made up of almost 3,000 employees, 4,000 affiliated physicians and a Healogics Specialty Physician practice group of nearly 300. In addition to the company’s network of outpatient Centers, Healogics partners with over 300 skilled nursing facilities to care for patients with chronic wounds and provides inpatient consults at more than 80 partner hospitals. As the industry leader, Healogics has the largest repository of chronic wound-specific patient data in the country. The Healogics Wound Science Initiative an effort launched in 2017 to provide peer-reviewed research, recognizes the value and relevance of big data and advanced analytics to drive continuous, collaborative learning towards a better understanding of how to efficiently utilize healthcare resources for patients with wounds.

About Natchitoches Regional Medical Center

Natchitoches Regional Medical Center began as a community hospital in 1955 and has grown into a 216-bed healthcare system with 750 Associates and more than 100 active and consulting physicians on its medical staff. The system is comprised of the 96-bed acute care facility, a skilled nursing home, assisted living complex, and an extensive network of clinics throughout the parish.

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